Purple patch: Asamoah Gyan poses in an Al-Ain shirt next to a club official (Picture: Twitter/@AbdallaBH)

The Black Cats have been left stunned by the move which has seen the 25-year-old swap the bright lights of the Premier League for the relativity unknown Etisalat Pro-League in the UAE.

Bruce – who splashed £13.2million on the Ghana international – told the BBC he’d suspected Gyan was looking elsewhere for some time after numerous approaches went through his management.

He also said the so-called ‘parasites’ first arrived on the scene when Gyan performed against England during an international friendly in March.

‘He’s been unsettled now, if we are being brutally honest, for weeks and months,’ Bruce said.

‘Since that game at Wembley, all the parasites, as I call them, hover around.’Real Madrid was the first one, which I laughed at five months ago, but it started with that and it’s ended up with the United Arab Emirates.’ While still in disbelief at the loan deal, Bruce took a swipe at the conduct of the striker’s management suggesting Gyan was forced to choose money over common sense.

‘People surround themselves with agents going to visit them. Five of them on Monday visited him in his hotel room, threatening him and the rest of it. ‘Who knows? Who knows what’s gone on around him? That’s onething … you can’t control. It’s very difficult.’

‘Forty eight hours ago I had him in my office and said, this [speculation about a move] has gone on too long.

‘He shook me by the hand and said “I want to remain here and be a Sunderland player” and then within 48 hours he has manufactured a move to the United Arab Emirates. ‘I will leave people to make their own conclusions about that but it baffles me how he can leave the best league in the world to go and play on the other side of the world.

‘No disrespect to Abu Dhabi or wherever he has gone, but I find itreally baffling.’